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- Herausgeber: Pushkin Vertigo
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER 2023 A dark Chinese suspense thriller about teenage accountability, where no one is innocent, for fans of Keigo Higashino and Un-Su Kim One beautiful morning, Zhang Dongsheng pushes his wealthy in-laws off a remote mountain. It's the perfect crime. Or so he thinks. For Zhang did not expect that teenager Chaoyang and his friends would catch him in the act. An opportunity for blackmail presents itself and the kids start down a dark path that will lead to the unravelling of all their lives. Dark, heart-stopping and violent, Bad Kids is the suspense thriller that has taken China by storm, proving that anyone has what it takes to become a killer.
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Contents
1
3 JULY 2013
The stone staircase led straight up the peak. A city wall, supposedly built during the southern Ming dynasty, traced the side of the wide path. In its heyday, the wall had been tall and imposing, but it had become less impressive after hundreds of years of weathering and decay. A company had reconstructed it recently, making it wider and sturdier. Visitors liked to hold onto it while climbing.
Sanmingshan was the most famous mountain in Ningbo. It had been a military stronghold in ancient times, but had been made into a nature park.
It was the first Wednesday in July, and the park was practically empty. Zhang Dongsheng knew this would be the best day to take his parents-in-law for a nice outing.
“Mum, Dad, let’s get to that observation point, then we can take a break,” he said. Carrying a hiking backpack and a fancy camera, he looked every bit the filial son-in-law.
They soon reached a platform the size of several basketball courts, about midway up the mountain. There they stood under a shady tree and took in the view.
Zhang’s mother-in-law inhaled the fresh air. She smiled with satisfaction. “I have always wanted to come here, but it’s too crowded on holidays like May Day and National Day. We are lucky that Zhang Dongsheng can take us here in summer, when nobody else is around!”
She was right; there were hardly any people. They were alone on the large platform. Well behind them were a few souvenir 8shops where some tourists were eating snacks or seeking shade, and about thirty yards away, three kids in their early teens were clowning around near a pavilion. Zhang dismissed them all as unimportant.
“Here, have some water,” he said, pulling out bottles from his backpack and handing one to each of them. “Dad, the view is really nice, I should take a photo of you and Mum here.”
Zhang’s father-in-law gruffly agreed, and the couple stood together and smiled. Zhang took one shot, then considered the scene.
“The wall is blocking the view a bit. Why don’t you sit on it instead? Then I’ll take another photo from that angle; it will look better,” he cooed.
“Just take one more and then let’s keep going. I don’t like having my picture taken,” the old man replied, irritation creeping into his voice. Still, he moved to the wall as his son-in-law had asked, not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm.
The wall was low and wide; people rested on it all the time. The old man settled and put his hands in his lap. His wife sat next to him and placed her hands on his arm. Zhang smiled eagerly, directing them with one hand while holding the camera in the other. He put it down and walked towards them. “You’re too stiff. Try to look like you are happily married!”
“Just take the picture,” Zhang’s father-in-law said, embarrassed. His wife smiled and did her best to look more loving.
Zhang’s eyes swept the area carefully one last time. Nobody else was there. The tourists at the shops were not looking in their direction. This was his moment!
Still smiling, he shifted their position by placing his hands on their shoulders. Then without warning, he grabbed their legs and lifted, sending them hurtling down the mountain. They screamed loudly as he stepped beyond their reach.
Zhang was overcome with shock for a few seconds. He went back to the edge and looked down. “Mum! Dad!” 9
There was no response. There was no chance of surviving the fall.
He turned and ran towards the shops. People had heard the screams and hurried to see what was going on.
Zhang’s voice became panicked. “Help! Help! There’s been an accident!”
But he allowed himself an inward smile. He had waited almost a year for this moment. He had committed the perfect crime—nothing could compare to the “accident” he had choreographed.
2
Summer had started and Zhejiang University campus was practically empty.
Professor Yan Liang, a PhD supervisor in the Mathematics Department, had just finished a meeting. It had dragged on so long that it was time for lunch. He invited two of his students, a man and a woman, to join him.
The three left the campus. As they walked, Yan turned on his phone, which had been off during the meeting. He saw that he had three missed calls, all from Xu Jing, his niece, and a text message: Uncle Yan, when you see this message, please call me back as soon as possible.
He frowned. He did not know what it was about, but it was clearly urgent. Xu Jing’s father, Yan’s cousin, was a retired director of China Tobacco. Yan had not been that close to his niece during her childhood, but that changed when she was accepted at his university. They were on the same campus so he made sure to look after her. It was on one of her visits to his office that Xu Jing had met Zhang Dongsheng, a mathematics student. He was Yan’s favourite student and so Yan was delighted when Zhang and Xu got married. He felt like he was not just Xu Jing’s uncle, but her matchmaker. But every time he thought of how Zhang had wasted his talent by becoming a schoolteacher, Yan sighed inwardly. Zhang was a star student—he had a gift for mathematical reasoning and Yan had expected him to do great things.
Zhang had been given the opportunity to go straight into a PhD and Yan had hoped to be his supervisor. But instead Zhang had taken a job. When Yan had tried to persuade him to consider further study, Zhang explained that his family could 11not afford any more debt. He needed to earn money as soon as possible to pay off his student loans, and to be able to marry Xu Jing. Not long after that, Xu had used family connections to get a job at China Tobacco and Zhang had found a job teaching maths at a middle school in Ningbo.
Just as Yan was about to text Xu back, the male student said, “That old person looks as if she is injured!”
Yan stopped what he was doing and they rushed to help. An old woman was lying on the pavement at the corner. There was blood on her hands and her knee. She clutched her leg and wailed. Yan was about to help her, but the student stopped him, “Wait a minute, Professor Yan!”
“Why?”
He whispered in Yan’s ear. “Haven’t you read the news? A lot of people are pretending to hurt themselves and then they accuse the person who helps them of injuring them in the first place. Then you have to pay them compensation.”
“Yeah, you shouldn’t get involved,” the female student agreed.
The old woman heard what they were saying and extended her hand to Yan. “Please help me. Please, I fell down on my own.”
The students were still trying to keep Yan out of it. He was indecisive, as he remembered reports of those scams and he thought his students had a point. At that moment, a burly man jumped off his electric bike and went to the aid of the old woman. “What are you doing, standing there? If you hit her you should be taking her to the hospital!”
The students instinctively distanced themselves from the woman, claiming they had not touched her.
The burly man frowned, “Even if wasn’t your fault, you should still help her, shouldn’t you?”
“Why aren’t you helping her then?” the male student shot back.
“Me?” It took a moment for him to resume his self-righteous attitude. “I have to get to work, otherwise I would be helping her 12already!” He spotted the university badge around Yan’s neck and clucked his tongue. “You call yourself a teacher?”
“Yes, I’m a teacher and these are my students,” Yan answered.
“What is the world coming to? Not even the students and staff at Zhejiang University are willing to help someone in need!” The burly man sighed dramatically.
Yan wanted to argue with him, but stopped: he felt guilty about not helping the old woman.
Seeing Yan’s expression change, the man continued, “I’ll be your witness if anybody asks you for money. I can take a video with your phone.” He took it without waiting for a reply and tapped the screen a few times. “OK, it’s ready, Professor. Now nobody can say you pushed her.”
Yan took a few seconds to think before deciding it was all right: with multiple witnesses and a video, it would be fine. Yan and his students helped the woman stand up.
“Thank you, thank you! You are such good people!” The woman gripped Yan’s hands and took a few faltering steps.
“I think you’ll be OK,” Yan said warmly. “Do you want us to help you get to the hospital?”
“No, thank you, I can walk. I don’t want to burden anyone. Thank you!” She let go of his hands and started to walk faster and faster until she was practically running.
The male student stared at her receding figure, as his initial shock gave way to anger. “Look at her sprint! You’re lucky nothing happened this time. I think you would have lost a few hundred back there, if we had not been around. But once we said the word ‘hospital’, she vanished. What a con artist!”
The other student agreed.
Yan stood still, scratching his head as he tried to figure out what was wrong. “But something did happen just now.” The ex-cop raced through the details in his mind and then it clicked. “Wait! My phone! They took my phone!”
The three of them looked around for the burly man, but he 13was long gone. Meanwhile, the grinning granny had hopped onto her own electric bike that was parked further down the road and was speeding away.
And that was why Professor Yan was unable to reply to Xu Jing when she needed him most.
3
1 JULY, QIUSHI MIDDLE SCHOOL IN NINGBO
A message had been carved into one of the front row desks in Classroom 4. It read:
If you wish to be the best, you must suffer the bitterest of the bitter.
The first part of the evening independent study period was over but Zhu Chaoyang was still leaning over his desk, focused on his practice questions for tomorrow’s final exam in mathematics. There was no need to cram since he almost always got a perfect score. Still, he had a passion for numbers that compelled him to solve problems, whether or not they would help him on the test. He would probably sail through Physics, Chemistry and Biology without studying tonight. His scores in Chinese Literature, English and Government would not be too shabby either.
Two hands slammed on his desk with a loud slap. Zhu Chaoyang nearly jumped out of his skin. He looked up to see a girl with short hair giving him a withering stare.
He returned the disparaging look. “Ye Chimin! What’s your problem?”
“Mrs Lu is looking for you,” she spat. Chaoyang stood up angrily, but knew better than to pick a fight with her. He was known to be a wimp and he had to tilt his chin up to match her gaze. It was bad enough to be the shortest, scrawniest, wimpiest boy in his class. Getting his butt kicked by a girl who was taller than him was too much for his ego.
Chaoyang let out a loud cough, using the sound to fart 15surreptitiously in her direction. A few seconds later, he made a show of covering his nose at the smell. “Ugh, Ye Chimin, can’t you warn us before you let one rip?”
She looked horrified. “You idiot!”
Chaoyang laughed and stuck out his tongue at her. He swaggered to the teacher’s office, but by the time he entered, his confidence had evaporated. He was probably going to be in trouble, even though he did not know why.
Mrs Lu, the form teacher, was in her forties and was tall and thin. She rarely smiled. All of the students were afraid of her, even Chaoyang. (She taught English, his worst subject.)
He could tell that she was in a bad mood and he shrank instinctively, like a turtle retreating into its shell. “You wanted to speak to me, Mrs Lu?”
Mrs Lu continued to read the homework assignments on her desk, not giving him a shred of her attention. Chaoyang scrunched the trouser legs of his school uniform with his hands, growing more nervous by the second. Was she too irate to acknowledge his presence? Was something else bothering her: hearing problems, indigestion, divorce? Mrs Lu ignored him for five whole minutes. Chaoyang couldn’t stand it.
When she was finished with her marking, she looked up. “Why did you break Ye Chimin’s camera?”
Chimin was a journalist for the school newspaper, so she frequently brought a camera to school.
Chaoyang looked utterly confused. “What camera?”
“Did you break the camera lens on Ye Chimin’s camera?”
“I’ve never touched it!” Chaoyang said, bewildered.
“Still denying your crimes, I see?”
“I… I didn’t do it,” he stammered, not knowing how to convince her of his innocence.
Mrs Lu was enraged. “I know you’re lying! Ye Chimin saw you take her camera from her desk and knock it against the classroom wall. When she got it back, the lens was broken.” 16
“That’s impossible! I never touched her camera! Ever!” Chaoyang protested. The conversation was utterly absurd.
“Enough. She already said that you don’t need to pay her for a new lens, so you don’t need to lie any more.”
“I…” He was so distressed he had to fight back tears. The accusation was completely unfounded—he had been solving problems at his desk during the entire evening study period. He was used to being bullied for his height, for his shabby clothes and for being the child of divorced parents. But he could not fathom why he was being accused of breaking a camera.
Mrs Lu watched him carefully. Her gaze gradually softened. “Go back to your studies, you have exams tomorrow. I’m dropping the matter. But consider this a warning, Zhu Chaoyang.”
Chaoyang wanted to protest again but gave up. The accusation was bizarre, but it wouldn’t help to argue with Mrs Lu. The best thing was to ask that snake Chimin about it later.
4
The bell rang as Zhu Chaoyang returned to the classroom. He looked hatefully at Ye Chimin. She took a moment to smile triumphantly at him before bending over her textbook.
Chaoyang returned to his desk, dejected. Fang Lina, who shared a desk with him, poked him lightly in the elbow. She was one of the few people he got along with in his class. Now she spoke in a hushed tone. “Don’t draw their attention. I want to tell you something.”
Chaoyang fixed his gaze on his workbook as he whispered, “What is it?”
Fang Lina kept her head perfectly still. “Did Mrs Lu just ask you about Ye Chimin’s camera?”
“Yeah.”
“Looks like she blamed you for it.”
“Huh?”
“When I finished eating and came back into the classroom, I saw Chimin and the class monitor looking at the camera. Chimin said that she dropped it and the lens broke. Then she said she was going to tell Mrs Lu that you did it.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Chaoyang said, his anger rising. “She lied to a teacher! I never touched her stupid camera. I’m going to tell Mrs Lu.”
“Please, don’t tell anyone. I don’t want to be their next target,” Lina begged.
Chaoyang frowned. After thinking about it, he agreed, “OK.”
“At least you know what happened. Don’t tell anyone!”
“I won’t.”
“She’s gone way too far this time,” Lina said.
“But why did they want to blame me?” 18
“I think when she broke the camera, she was afraid that her dad would be furious. He’s a captain in the police and he used to be in the military. It doesn’t matter what she does: if she makes a mistake, he hits her. But her dad won’t punish her if she says a classmate did it,” she explained.
“She got me in trouble just so she could stay out of trouble!” Chaoyang grumbled. Then his expression changed. “But she’s too old to be spanked, isn’t she?”
“I dunno. Her dad basically treats her like a boy. One time she came to class with a bruise on the side of her face. She said her dad had slapped her.”
Chaoyang snickered at the thought of Chimin being punished. “That explains her butch haircut. Maybe she has that dazed look in her eyes because of all of the slapping!”
At that moment, the two realized that they had forgotten to whisper. Mrs Lu was standing right in front of them.
“You seem to be having a lot of fun for a study session!” Mrs Lu said.
Lina hung her head, not daring to breathe.
Zhu Chaoyang took the fall. “It’s my fault, I distracted Lina.”
“You have exams tomorrow! You need to focus!” Mrs Lu commanded. Chaoyang could swear he felt cold air coming from his teacher—she must have freezer chests for lungs.
He was despondent about being told off again by his form teacher, as he was still seething about being blamed for something he hadn’t done. He had survived the torture of the second independent study session when he headed towards the toilet and saw Chimin washing her thermos. He couldn’t resist smacking the sink in the same way that she had slapped his desk earlier. “Why did you accuse me of something I didn’t do?”
Chimin sized him up briefly and went back to her rinsing out her flask.
“Bitch,” he said, and started to walk away. 19
All of a sudden, Chimin started crying loudly. He looked back, surprised. Talk about melodramatic! He was even more confused when she filled her thermos with cold water and poured it over her own head before running away. He went to the toilet as quickly as possible and returned to the classroom to get his things. He saw Ye Chimin in the teacher’s office, wailing at Mrs Lu. Two other teachers were trying to console her.
Mrs Lu spotted him and used her most threatening voice. “Zhu Chaoyang, get in here!”
He quivered at the sight of her, but he had no choice.
“What’s gotten into you? Pouring water on Ye Chimin’s head?”
“What?!” Zhu Chaoyang stared at Chimin, then looked back at his teacher. “I didn’t do anything, she did that to herself!”
Suddenly, he realized what was going on. There was no point in fighting because it was her word against his. Ye Chimin’s hair was soaked and she was crying bitterly. Mrs Lu had believed her the first time around, so it wasn’t surprising that she would now.
“I’m going to speak to your mother about this,” the form teacher warned.
Chaoyang looked stricken. “But… I really didn’t do it, she did it to herself.”
“You’d better change your tone, or you can forget about your final exams,” Mrs Lu said severely.
“I didn’t pour water on her. She did it herself, honestly,” he said, his lip quivering.
“Again you won’t admit what you’ve done! I’ve never seen a student like this before! Just because you ace your exams doesn’t mean we’ll let you off for bad behaviour. I want to speak with your mother tomorrow—otherwise you don’t need to bother to come for the exams.”
Chaoyang dug his fingernails into his palms. This was the worst day of his life. 20
He watched as Mrs Lu guided Ye Chimin back into the classroom, telling her in soft tones not to be intimidated by the bully.
When Chimin disappeared through the doorway, Mrs Lu came back and spoke to Zhu Chaoyang: “Your mother explained your situation to me at the beginning of the year. Your parents are divorced, your father does not discipline you and your mother works away from home a lot, so you spend a lot of time alone. Last time she spoke with me, your mother asked me to be firm, but I never expected you to do something like this.”
“I didn’t do it,” Chaoyang said, his voice cracking.
Mrs Lu took a deep breath. She knew that he was a good student but once she made up her mind, she never backed down. “You can’t keep denying what you’ve done. Tell your mother to come to school in the morning, I must speak to her.”
“But… she has to work.”
“Then she will have to take a day off. Go home and call your mother. Explain that she has to come to school tomorrow, otherwise you will not be allowed to take your exams.”
He stood still.
“Go home! Now!” Mrs Lu shouted, pulling him along by his arm.
When he had reached the door of the office, he couldn’t stand it any more. “I’m sorry, I was wrong. I won’t do it again. Please, Mrs Lu, let me take my exams tomorrow. I’m sorry, I will never bully Ye Chimin again. Please.”
The other two teachers liked Chaoyang very much and helped him make his case. “Don’t be so hard on him, he’s admitted it. Let him write an apology letter and be done with it. He needs to take his exams, after all,” one said.
Mrs Lu sighed, but was finally persuaded by them and Chaoyang’s tears. She made him write an apology letter promising not to do it again before letting him go.
He slung his backpack on his back and headed home, exhausted. On the way he ran into Ye Chimin who gave a cruel 21smile. “Who gave you permission to be top of the class? My dad shouts at me for not being number one and it’s all your fault. We’ll see who’s really the best tomorrow then, huh?”
He finally understood why this had happened. She was jealous of his exam scores! She did this just to cut him down!
He glared at her briefly, and kept walking.
He desperately wanted the term to be over.
5
2 JULY
After Chaoyang had finished his last exams, school ended and everyone went home. It was finally summer. He felt he could say goodbye to a thoroughly rotten year.
He was home alone that afternoon in their shabby apartment, which measured barely 650 square feet. The floors were covered in a plastic material that was popular in the ’90s and the walls were unpainted. The place smelled a little musty. A steel fan creaked, providing a feeble breeze against the heat. Chaoyang had taken his shirt off to cool down. He was sitting on his bedroom floor, reading Home Remedies to Increase Height. He would give anything to be a little bit taller.
He had seen an ad for the book and bought a mail-order copy for 20 yuan. There were all kinds of tips. Chaoyang had gone through the list and underlined the key points. The first thing he would do was stop drinking carbonated drinks, because the book said they leached calcium from the bones. He drew a star next to the tip and vowed never to drink soda again.
He was fully absorbed in the book when he heard an urgent knock on the door. He stuffed the book on the shelf and went to the door. He opened the door but left the steel security grille locked. He could see a boy and a girl who were roughly his age. The boy was a head taller than him, at about 5 feet 5 inches; the girl was shorter. They both seemed frightened.
“Are you looking for someone?” Chaoyang asked hesitantly.
“Zhu Chaoyang, I can’t believe you still live here!” The boy beamed. “Remember me?” 23
Chaoyang took a closer look. “Ding Hao! What are you doing here?”
“We need your help. Quick, open the door!”
He opened the grille, and Ding Hao quickly guided the girl in and closed both doors. “Can I have some water? I’m super thirsty.”
Chaoyang got them glasses of water and Ding Hao downed his. The girl took small sips, her face expressionless. She resembled an ice sculpture.
“Who is your friend?” Chaoyang asked Ding Hao.
“You can call her Pupu. She’s my sister. Not my actual sister, but we’re family now.” He looked at her. “Pupu, this is Zhu Chaoyang, the guy I’ve been telling you about. We were best friends at school. But we haven’t seen each other in… five years now.”
“Hi,” she said.
Zhu Chaoyang felt awkward sitting in front of a girl half naked. He got his shirt and returned to the kitchen. “Ding Hao, how did you get so tall?”
“I dunno,” he said, chuckling and scratching his head.
“You guys looked really frightened when I answered the door. What’s happened?”
“Long story,” Ding Hao said, swinging his arms in a familiar carefree way. “Someone wanted to nab us and we jumped out of a van to get away.”
Chaoyang looked alarmed. “Were they traffickers? Should we call the police?”
“Nah. They were…” Ding Hao stopped. He laughed to ease the tension. “It’s a long story.”
“Seriously, what happened? Where did you go to school for the past five years? The teachers all said you moved to another city and I thought I’d never see you again. You left without even saying goodbye.”
Ding Hao grew serious and looked at Pupu, who did not give any indication that she cared what he said. 24
“What?” Chaoyang was starting to get creeped out.
Ding Hao lowered his voice. “You really don’t know why I moved?”
“How would I know when you never told me?”
“It’s because… my parents were arrested.”
“What are you talking about?”
Ding Hao made a face. “My parents killed someone, they were caught, and they were executed.”
“What!” Chaoyang’s eyes widened and he studied them both more carefully. “Why didn’t I hear about this?”
“The teachers probably didn’t want you to know that a former classmate was the son of murderers,” Ding Hao said in an attempt at a joke.
“Don’t talk like that. Your parents might have killed someone, but that has nothing to do with you. Umm… why did they do it?” Chaoyang asked, although he wasn’t really sure he wanted to know the details. He was trying hard to think of a way to get rid of them. He didn’t want any trouble. It had been years since he had seen Ding Hao and he didn’t really know anything about him now. Chaoyang was home alone, anything could happen.
Ding Hao blushed. “I still don’t know. Someone told me that it happened like this, but I don’t know if it’s true: my mum cheated on my dad, and he wanted her to find a girlfriend for him or something. So my mum tricked a college student into helping her. The kind student helped my mum home after she fainted on the street; then my dad raped the girl. Apparently they both killed her to cover it up, but they were caught. So they were executed by a firing squad.”
“Oh…” Chaoyang was shocked at Ding Hao’s far-fetched story. He felt nervous and certainly wanted them to leave, but he couldn’t think of a good way to do it. He kept on talking. “So where have you been all this time?”
“At an orphanage in Beijing. People don’t want anything to do with children of murderers, none of my aunts or uncles 25would take me. I had no choice. Pupu’s just like me, she didn’t have parents or a guardian, so she had to go to the orphanage, too.”
Pupu looked up at Chaoyang, then turned her head away. They sat in an uncomfortable silence. They both had murderers for parents! Again Chaoyang regretted opening the door. He should have hidden in his room and pretended not to be home.
“So, how did you get here? Beijing is really far away,” he finally said.
“We ran away,” Ding Hao said. “We didn’t want to stay at the orphanage, so we escaped and made our way here. Pupu is from Jiangsu and she didn’t want to go back. I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go, so we came here. I was too chicken to contact my relatives. I knew they would just call the police. We planned to spend a few days here and then move on, but then a bunch of stuff happened. This morning—” He suddenly clammed up.
“What happened this morning?” Chaoyang pressed.
“We kinda ran out of money, so we begged on the side of the road,” Ding Hao said after a pause.
“You did what?” Chaoyang could hardly believe that this was his best friend from primary school. He had seemed like a perfectly normal kid years ago, but now his story suggested that he was with the wrong crowd.
“I knew that you would think less of me if I told you. But we didn’t have a choice.”
“No, no, I don’t think less of you,” Chaoyang fibbed.
“Really?” Ding Hao brightened. “Then a van came along, it said… what did it say on the van again, Pupu?”
“City Enforcement,” she said coldly.
“Yeah, that’s it. They said we couldn’t beg and we had to move along. So we started walking, but we were hungry, so we bought something from a bakery. And then another van came, and those guys were from the Civil Affairs Bureau. They told us they wanted to contact our parents. No matter where they took 26us, they would find out that we ran away, and they would just put us back in the orphanage. So Pupu said she had to pee, and they stopped the van for her, and we ran off. We happened to be close to your house, and I recognized where we were, so we took a chance and knocked on your door. I can’t believe that you are still living here!” he finished.
After hearing all this, Chaoyang was even more anxious. Ding Hao and he were good friends before, but that was a long time ago. He tried to think of a plan of action. Kicking them out might be dangerous, but if they stayed too long, what would happen then?
“What… uh… are you planning to do?” Chaoyang stammered.
Ding Hao shrugged. “I might try and find some work, but Pupu is too little. She’s only eleven; she should be at school.”
“And you shouldn’t? You’re only thirteen!”
“Man, I hate school. I want to start working as soon as possible.”
“But nobody would hire you. You’re not old enough to work.”
“If I don’t tell ’em, they won’t know, will they? I’m tall enough to pass for sixteen,” Ding Hao smirked.
Chaoyang finally brought up the awkward question. “So what are you planning to do… in terms of sleeping? My place is small, I mean… you know…”
“I won’t freeload off you really, I promise. But if it’s OK, we would like to spend the night here,” Ding Hao said.
“Oh…” Chaoyang looked away awkwardly.
Pupu spoke up. “Ding Hao, forget it. Let’s go.”
“We left our bag in the what-d’ye-call-it van, remember? I don’t think we’ll find a place to sleep tonight,” Ding Hao stage-whispered to Pupu.
“There’s always a way,” she said.
Ding looked at her, back at Chaoyang, and then stood and laughed jovially. “OK, then, we’ll leave. See you around, Chaoyang. I’ll come back after I find a job.” 27
Chaoyang led them to the door, his brows knitted in concentration.
“When I start making money, I’ll take you to KFC,” Ding Hao said with a grin. He waved goodbye and had started to walk away when he turned around again. “Oh, wait, I have some candied haw berries for you in my bag! It’s a snack from Beijing, I bet you’ve never had it before. I thought if I had the chance to see you…”
Pupu rolled her eyes at Ding Hao. “You left the bag in the van, remember?”
Ding Hao smoothed his hair awkwardly. “Next time, I guess. Take care, mate! Bye!”
“Wait, guys,” Chaoyang said. He felt a pang of guilt—after being best friends in primary school, how could he not help? When an older student had bullied him, Ding Hao had stepped up and taken a beating for him. Chaoyang ran away but Ding Hao never blamed him for it, saying it was better that only one person got hurt. Now his worries were rejected because of their past friendship. “You can stay over tonight. My mum works at a tourist attraction and only comes home once every few days. She won’t be back for two days, so you can stay here.”
“Really?” Ding Hao asked hopefully.
“Yeah. We can all squeeze into my room. Pupu can have the bed and you and me can sleep on the floor.”
Ding Hao turned to Pupu. “What do you think, Pupu?”
“I don’t want to bother anyone,” she said, shaking her head.
“It’s fine,” Chaoyang hurriedly said.
Pupu was quiet for a moment. Then she nodded, her face still serious. “Well, OK. Thank you, Brother Chaoyang. If you want us to go, you can tell us at any time.”
He blushed.
6
“Pupu, you’re a pro at making noodles. This is delicious!” Chaoyang said between bites.
“Yeah, she helped out in the kitchen at the orphanage, she knows her stuff,” Ding Hao said.
Pupu, expressionless as usual, sat at the table and took small nibbles of her noodles. She had only said a few sentences since she arrived. Chaoyang was not entirely sure why, but he wanted to make a good impression on her. “Pupu, you’re not eating very much. Do you want something else?”
“No thanks,” she said.
“She doesn’t eat much,” Ding Hao explained. “Plus it’s so hot outside, I don’t think either of us is really hungry.”
Chaoyang saw that Ding Hao was polishing off his third bowl of noodles, but didn’t comment.
“So… Pupu, you went to the orphanage for the same reason as Ding Hao?” he asked cautiously.
“Duh,” Ding Hao said. “It’s the same for everyone at the orphanage. No parents, no guardian.”
“Oh,” Chaoyang studied his friend’s happy expression. He didn’t think he would be so upbeat if he were in their shoes. “So how did Pupu’s parents die?”
She dropped her chopsticks on the table and stared at him.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Chaoyang said hastily.
She didn’t answer, but picked up her chopsticks and slurped a mouthful of noodles.
Ding Hao laughed it off. “Never mind. You’re one of us now, so it doesn’t matter. Right, Pupu?”
When she did not say anything, Ding Hao took her silence as agreement and spilled the beans. “Her dad killed her mum and her little brother, and then he was caught. Got the death sentence.” 29
“He didn’t do it!” Pupu’s response was loud. “I told you before, my dad never killed anyone.”
“But the support workers all said he did.”
“They don’t know anything. Right before he died, my dad told me I had to believe him that he didn’t kill my mother. He told me even if he fought with my mother sometimes, he loved me and he would never take my mother away from me,” she said.
“But then why did the police arrest your dad? Police officers don’t make an arrest until they are sure they have the right person,” Chaoyang asked innocently.
“They get the wrong guy all the time! My dad told me they forced him to stay awake and interrogated him for days, until he had to admit to killing them just to make the torture end. But he didn’t do it! I was only seven, but I remember my dad saying it was too late to change anything, and all he wanted was for me to know that he was innocent.” Despite her impassioned speech, her face showed no emotion.
Chaoyang did not know what to say.
“Brother Chaoyang, do you have a camera?” Pupu suddenly asked.
“A camera? What for?”
“My dad told me I should take a photo of myself once a year and burn it so that he would receive it in the afterlife. Every year on the anniversary of his death, I take a photo of myself and write a letter to him. Then I burn them so he can receive them.”
“Oh, so you need to take a picture so your dad can see how you’re doing?” Chaoyang wanted to make sure he understood her correctly.
“Yeah. Burning stuff is the easiest way to communicate with dead family members, everybody knows that,” she noted with exasperation.
Chaoyang bit his lip. “I don’t have a camera. We might have to go to a photography studio.”
“How much is that gonna cost?” Ding Hao asked anxiously. 30
“Maybe… fifteen yuan?”
“Fifteen yuan…” Ding Hao frowned as he thought about it. Then he became resolute. “We have to take a photo, I know it’s important. Fifteen yuan is not that bad. Don’t worry, Pupu, I have a little money.”
She nodded.
Everyone finished their noodles. They stayed at the table and kept talking; it didn’t take long before they were comfortable with each other. The visitors were envious when they heard about Chaoyang’s top scores at school. Then they described the journey from Beijing to Ningbo, although they clearly did not enjoy sharing some parts. Zhu Chaoyang couldn’t begin to imagine how difficult it was to get by as runaways. Sometimes they had had to charm people into giving them money; when that didn’t work, they had shoplifted. When they told him about that, Chaoyang felt his stomach tie into knots again. He looked involuntarily towards his mother’s room, where he knew a few thousand yuan were lying in an unlocked drawer. He resolved to move the money to a safer place when they weren’t looking. The two didn’t seem to be suspicious about him, which was reassuring.
The phone rang and Chaoyang went to his mother’s room to answer it. After he hung up, he hesitated for a few seconds, hid the cash between the wall and the back of the bedside table, and placed a short piece of yarn between the door and frame before he closed it. If he discovered the yarn on the floor, he would know that the door had been opened. “My dad just called,” he said. “He wants me to go see him at his office. Um… where will you guys hang out in the meantime?”
Ding Hao looked surprised but then smiled, “No worries. We can just walk around your neighbourhood until you come back.”
Zhu Chaoyang felt relieved. They didn’t seem to have bad intentions—perhaps he should trust them more.
7
YONGPING SEAFOOD OFFICE
About twenty miles east of the city centre was an industrial estate, where several seafood cold-storage facilities were located. A fair-sized building on the western side had a large sign: “Yongping Seafood”. Its main office was hazy with smoke, as the owner Zhu Yongping played cards with five other wealthy men who owned businesses nearby. The table was a mess of snacks and cigarettes.
“That’s a clean sweep!” Zhu shouted gleefully. He collected the 4,000 yuan and put it in a neat pile.
“It must be your lucky day, Yongping. How many times have you been dealer?” Yang Genchang asked.
“This makes up for last time when I kept losing,” Zhu laughed. He shuffled the cards.
“You ought to give some of it to your son,” Fang Jianping reprimanded him.
“I give him money, sometimes,” Zhu Yongping said defensively, dealing the cards.
“Bullshit!” Fang said. “The other day I took Lina to the bookstore to buy some books and we ran into your son, reading on the floor. I asked him what he was doing there and do you know what he said? He said it was hot and the bookstore had air-conditioning. He has to go to the bookstore just to keep cool.”
Zhu Yongping’s face turned a delicate shade of pink. “I give him money, but he and his mother are frugal.”
Fang arranged his cards as he spoke. “You’re not giving him much. Lina sits next to him in class, and she says the boy wears 32the same three or four shirts all the time. You’re here flashing your luxury brands and buying the prettiest clothes for your wife and your daughter. Meanwhile your son is dressed like a beggar. Just because you divorced your first wife, doesn’t mean you should forget that he exists.”
“I heard he’s the best student in his school. He’s the kind of kid any father would be proud of. He’s actually doing really well at school unlike our kids,” Yang Genchang added.
“Best in the whole school?” Zhu sounded genuinely surprised.
“Are you kidding me? You didn’t even know that he had the best exam scores in the whole damn school?” Fang said contemptuously. “Your little princess Jingjing was held back a year, but you still kiss the ground she walks on. You don’t even give your son the time of day. I would kill to have a kid half as smart as your son.”
The others all took Fang’s side.
“I’ll call him in a few days and give him money,” Zhu said in an attempt to save face.
“Why wait?” Fang replied. “Your wife is at the zoo with your daughter, right? Call him and tell him to come by, then I can ask him to tutor my daughter so she can get her grades up.”
“We know your wife won’t let you contact him, and they’re always around so you can’t see him much. Isn’t this the perfect day?” Yang said. “Maybe during those tutoring sessions, they’ll develop feelings for each other, and in a few years you and Fang will be in-laws. Your son will drive the family Bentley and you’ll have a stake in Fang’s factory. You’ll be loaded.”
Everyone laughed. Ashamed, Zhu called his son.
8
“Hello, Father. Uncle Fang, Uncle Yang, everyone,” Zhu Chaoyang greeted the men when he entered his father’s office.
“Look at how polite your son is! He’s a little gentleman, unlike my good-for-nothing son,” Yang Genchang joked.
“Pour them tea,” Zhu Yongping said, ruffling his son’s hair with pride.
Chaoyang did what he was told.
Fang Jianping rearranged his cards as he spoke. “Chaoyang, my daughter is ranked twentieth in the class. With her grades, I’m worried she won’t be able to get into a good high school. You two sit next to each other, so can you help her out next time she needs it?”
“Sure, of course,” he agreed.
“Thank you, Chaoyang.”
“That’s all right, Uncle Fang.”
The others were deeply impressed by how polite he was. It was rare to find such a respectful teenager these days.
“Your dad doesn’t give you money very often, does he?” Fang continued his attack.
“He does… sometimes.”
“How much did he give you this time?”
“This time?” Chaoyang was confused. He looked at his father.
“The summer break just started, I didn’t give him anything yet,” Zhu Yongping explained hastily.
